There are many challenges in policing and the issue surrounding use of force is one of them. No matter what topic I’m presenting everyone wants to know about use of force; that’s the official terminology when an officer uses any kind of force on someone else.
It can be a bit frustrating for someone like me who is trying to market the Ottawa Police Service as an intelligent business, focused on strategic forward thinking with effective technique based training… Don’t care? Neither do many others.
I’m constantly being asked in no particular order, “Have you shot anyone? Have you been shot at? When will you shoot someone?” And despite my best efforts to avoid the topic because there are simply more important issues, I must concede to the fact that people are genuinely interested in police use of force.
Who can blame them for such curiosity? Television doesn’t help my cause much. But our police officers are the only ones walking around with weapons and expected by society to use it at the appropriate time. And that’s when the challenging part begins, using it at the appropriate time, duration, intensity, and legally.
There are many variables that will determine the effectiveness of a use of force incident. All of which I can tell you are very scary no matter how long you’ve been a police officer. I’ve lost count at how many people have tried to fight me, and I’m just happy I have been able to come home for Christmas dinner every year.
Once a police officer realizes that someone is about to attack them, their body creates a physiological reaction similar to everyone else. Adrenaline instantly occurs, fine motor skills become difficult, and everyone will experience a lost in hearing and vision of some sort.
What differs from the general public is that your police officers go through extensive training to combat and control the very physiological responses that hinder their ability to react appropriately. Officers are educated on the human body’s response to stress and trained to overcome it to perform their duties. It goes against human instinct to run towards gun shots, but I promise your officers will, when the time comes.
But physically surviving a use of force encounter is completely different from legally surviving. Our officers have to be able to justify their use of force, days, months, and maybe even years after the incident is over. Failure to survive the incident legally could not only cost you your job but the media coverage is sometimes worst then any punishment you can have, justified or not.
This is usually when I see disconnect between the police and the public, and I admit the police can do more public education on the Use of Force Model. But we really don’t have the time to be teaching it to everyone either.
The latest Ontario Use of Force Model was revised in 2004, a circle shaped diagram that breaks down how our police officers are to respond during a perceived incident. Now the key word is “perceived” because there are many factors that will play into how each of us responds to a similar situation.
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Depending on your size, skill, experience, background, and what is observe, each of us will respond slightly different to the same scenario. The option to use force can vary greatly from physical grabbing, to a gun being fired, and of course everything in between.
The model’s shape is circular because situations are dynamic and can change, requiring officers to constantly adapt. The core of the model shows three arrows one after another labelled assess, plan, and act. Perception and tactical considerations are a constant throughout the entire situation.
Taking up the largest space in the model is a suspect’s behaviour; this is recognized as the most important factor on how an officer will respond. A suspect’s behaviour can range from cooperative all the way to threats of serious bodily harm or death. It is gradually shaded from white to black, demonstrating that there are many emotional states within the spectrum.
Police officers responses are expected to be within the outside rim of the model, using anything from communication, which is constant throughout the entire situation, to lethal force if no other reasonable option exists. The model shows that as a suspect escalates within the large interior circle, that officers are authorized to increase their use of force along the outside circle.
It’s not easy for police officers to memorize the entire Use of Force model and act accordingly within its guidelines while making split second decisions under tremendous stress. But this is what we as a society expects of our police officers, nothing less.
Last year the Ottawa Police Service had 740 reported cases of use of force, overwhelmingly reported by front line officers who are exposed to the most dangerous parts of this job, the unknown. I am grateful for their work because after seven years of working the streets I know their challenges all too well.